The Signs
by thegeeklockwhovolunteered
Summary: The Watson baby has finally arrived & John is overwhelmed, but misses a some signs. Pre-Sherlolly. Fluff. My first fic ever! In-progress (:
1. Chapter 1

Okay, So this is like my very first fic! Sherlolly all the way. Please read and review! And let me know if you would like it to be continued.

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**December 21st**

"Claire Sheryl Watson," said Mary, beaming at the little pink bundle in her hands.

"Aww ! That's a lovely name!" Mrs. Hudson said moving forward to hold the peacefully sleeping baby.

"Mrs. Hudson!" came a low growl from the left end of Mary's bed. "You can't touch the baby before disinfecting your hands. You've been decorating that bloody tree with those ridiculous baubles and hanging mistletoes over the entire flat. So hold your awws & wash your hands first."

"Oh Sherlock-" Mrs. Hudson argued.

"NOW!" Sherlock scolded.

Mrs. Hudson rushed to the wash basin at the corner of the hospital room glaring at Sherlock & muttering under her breath.

"Hello everyone!" said a soft pleasant voice from by the door.

"Ah! Molly, do come in," John said giving her a quick hug. "Meet Claire Sheryl Watson," he added proudly as Molly sat by the chair beside the bed.

"She's really beautiful. Congratulations!"Molly said brightly smiling at the parents and eventually at Sherlock.

Sherlock awkwardly shifted in his seat & looked away.

"What took you so long!? My baby has been waiting for Aunt Molly since ages!" Mary whined.

Clearly irritated by the over dramatic display of affection, Sherlock began "What ages!? The baby was born not more than four hours ago! Now, the average duration of the term AGE can-"

"Shut up Sherlock!" John interrupted. "And for the record, our little girl has a name. Did you even hear it Mr. SHERLOCK IS ACTUALLY A GIRL'S NAME?"

"Yes. Claire – not very unique of a name-origin of the word French, meaning clear, bright obviously chose by Mary because of-"

"For heaven's sake Sherlock! Stop your bloody deductions!" John literally screamed in frustration to which little Claire woke up.

And just when they thought that she was about to cry, she looked at Molly & smiled.

"OH look, she likes you!" Mary said as Molly took the baby in her arms and Mrs. Hudson awed. Again.

"Hello Claire," Molly said as the baby took hold of stray hair strands from Molly's ponytail & began playing with them, on which Mrs. Hudson & both the proud parents awed.

Normally, in a situation like this, Sherlock would've scowled in disgust & excused himself by placing both the hands under his chin carefully slipping into his mind palace. But he didn't. Instead, he found himself gazing at Molly which was weird because he was not making any deductions. His brain had stopped functioning & something stirred inside him. Suddenly a warm feeling crept over him & he felt the urge to brush a strand off Molly's face.

Just then, the nurse came in for check up & politely requested the lot to leave. Sherlock was still staring as Molly carefully placed Claire back on the bed & made a mental note to review what exactly happened to him. John saw this.

"So when are they discharging you? Can you be home for Christmas?" Molly inquired.

"Oh yes I am arranging a little get together for all of us at my place. We will sing carols, Sherlock will play violin. I am even trying out a new cheesecake recipe with raspberry sauce and the new minty sprinklers they are showing on the TV. Even Greg & the doctor from the hospital (Mike Stamford) is going to join us. " Mrs. Hudson said excitedly.

"The doctor said we can go home tomorrow, so we'll be there Mrs. Hudson" Mary assured.

They said their goodbyes & shortly after Molly rushed back to work saying she had to finish loads of paperwork and Sherlock waited outside with Mrs. Hudson & John.

He reviewed the incident in his mind palace & decided to ignore it eventually thinking it was trivial and a momentary sentiment which didn't mean anything-or did it?

"Hang on-" Mrs. Hudson brought him out of his trance. "You didn't ask Molly to wash her hands before she took the baby."

"Oh don't be ridiculous Mrs. Hudson!" Sherlock replied. "Molly would never be ignorant of such detail. After all, she is MY pathologist"

Mrs. Hudson scowled but John noticed his choice of words.


	2. Chapter 2

Hello there! Thank you soo much for your lovely reviews, follows and favorites. Here comes Chapter 2. Seriously i don't have any idea how long the story is going to be..so hold on! And yes, the baby's middle name is indeed kept after Sherlock. Enjoy (:

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Ever since Sherlock returned from the dead, he had changed. He made jokes and laughed with John, cared about Mary to the extent of killing the obnoxious newspaper giant Magnussen, complained a little less about Mrs. Hudson & even remembered Lestrade's name on a few occasions. He had even helped Mrs. Hudson plan the Christmas party; but he had changed the most towards Molly. He was gentler towards her. He had spent an entire day with her and had made sure that she understood how grateful he really was for her help. Even when she introduced her fiance Tom, who was like a distorted version of the detective himself, Sherlock had not deduced him like he used to deduce her boyfriends before. "I hope you'll be very happy Molly Hooper" he had told her in Shilcott's apartment and he genuinely wanted her to be because she mattered to him. He of course knew of her feelings towards him, but he also knew that he could never give her what she wanted. He was not designed for domestic bonds and he made that quite clear to everyone around him. He trusted and respected her for what she was.

December 24th

Molly walked into the flat wearing a simple navy knee-length dress that accentuated her curves perfectly. She had let her hair down with a satin band to hold it in place unlike the way she tied every day at work in the morgue.

"Molly! You look gorgeous!" Mrs. Hudson greeted her with a peck on her cheek.

"WOW!" Greg exclaimed. He had recently got divorced after finding out about his wife's scandalous affair with their neighbor.

Mary was perched on John's chair with little Claire fast asleep on her lap.

"I need to know where you got those shoes from!" Mary said in a hushed voice and John gave a soft chuckle at his wife's statement. Mary was finally allowed to wear heels now that the baby was born.

"Sure, Mary. Oh Mike said he won't be able make it today. Duty calls"

"Oh! That's a shame." said John.

Just then a noise of glass shattering came from the kitchen."Damn!" exclaimed Sherlock. He was still engrossed in his experiment of calculating the decay rate of bone marrow after death.

"Sherlock, stop that experiment of yours already now. We have a schedule to follow, remember?"Mrs. Hudson said.

"Be there in a minute!" he said.

Mary put the baby in her pram and went over to have a drink as Sherlock came in the living room finally.

The first thing he noticed was Molly's dress which in his opinion looked much better on her as compared to the baggy clothes she wore at work. He also noticed her hair deciding he quite liked it this way. But her bag which didn't have a perfectly wrapped present unlike the last time disappointed him. All of the presents were wrapped in the same paper with equal care.

Lestrade handed a glass to Molly asking her about her plans that night.

"OH MY GOD!" Mrs. Hudson screamed out of no where. "Look where you're standing!" She exclaimed pointing above Molly & laughing hysterically in a high pitched voice.

Molly glanced up at the little white berries hanging in the mess of green leaves with a red ribbon on top. She was standing below a little branch of mistletoe. With no one other than Greg.

"Oh dear dear!" Mary said excitedly "You know what to do now." During her pregnancy, when she was on leave, Mary had been setting Molly up with all the eligible bachelors in her contact list, it was kind of her favorite past time and poor Molly had to put up with all those men whom she was not interested in at all. She had lost her heart to a certain detective ages ago.

"Come on you two, don't be shy" said Mrs. Hudson who had finally stopped laughing.

Molly nervously shifted in her place and glanced at Sherlock who still didn't have a clue what the women were talking about and had a confused expression on his face. Before he could say anything however, John interrupted-

"The mistletoe, Sherlock. So much for a consulting detective."

Sherlock, with an alarmingly panicked face looked from Lestrade to Molly. Realization finally dawned over him when he looked away frowning. John squinted at the expression on Sherlock's face. Quite frankly he was expecting a disgusted look or a scoff to the very least. He was getting more and more interested in the way Sherlock was responding these days.

"If you don't mind..."Greg said.

"Oh..umm..no.."Molly said awkwardly.

Greg leaned forward and gave Molly a quick kiss on her cheek. Molly thought it would be rude if she didn't return the kiss so she slowly raised and planted a light kiss on the detective inspector's cheek.

And then everything went silent. It was like the dreaded silence before a storm.

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Dun dun duuunnnnn... So how did you find it? Please let me know your opinions. xoxox


	3. Chapter 3

Okay.. Here's another chapter! Thank you for your reviews CQCRASH, emedealer, Bucky5, Icecat62, Rocking the Redhead, coolaquariun, The-Scorpio-Holmes-Sister-221B . And a big thank you to my lovelies Nikki and Manasi for reviewing *throws kisses back at ya* Happy reading! :P

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Molly thought it would be rude if she didn't return the kiss so she slowly raised and planted a light kiss on the detective inspector's cheek.

The women in the room had cooed.

John had raised his glass saying"Cheers!"

Billy the skull's mouth was hanging ajar by the mantlepeice.

But Sherlock couldn't hear a thing. Everything was silent for him. He couldn't comprehend anything.

Suddenly, he felt the most strange sensation in the pit of his stomach.

"Why are you here?" He blurted out.

The others turned to look at him.

Sherlock Holmes had turned pink and was sending death glares towards Molly.

"What do you mean why. Its our little girl's first Christmas. You organized this party, composed a new tune for today, remember?" John said uneasily taking in Sherlock's state.

He didn't respond still glaring at her.

Afraid that he might lash out on someone and spoil the festive mood, John tried to distract him. " That reminds me Sherlock, you have not had a drink yet. Have a drink mate. Sit down."

Sherlock shifted his death glare from Molly to Greg to to Mary.

Still afraid, John said," You, Mr. Holmes should play the violin. Come on now, we haven't heard the new composition."

" Why are ANY of you here?"

He had now turned into a deep shade of beet red.

"Mrs. Hudson! Don't you have to take your dose of herbal soothers today?! Well I think its about time everyone knows what medicines could possibly require the use of needles on a daily basis."

Mrs. Hudson went stone cold at his statement. She was just about to say something when Sherlock interrupted again.

" Mary, don't you have to rest? You were discharged barely 48 hrs ago. Don't you have to make sure the baby is well cared for?"

Mary was keenly observing Sherlock.

Sherlock moved from by the couch to the kitchen entrance where Molly and Greg were standing.

"Graham," Sherlock said "Don't you have to finish filing. You have heaps of cases pending I deduce. And most importantly, don't you have to CELEBRATE with your children?" He added bitterly.

"Its Greg! And-"

Sherlock didn't let him continue.

" And you Ms. Hooper. Don't you have suitors to find?" Sherlock smirked. "I'm sure you have a date tonight. The usual mediocre minded men whom you'd settle for the sake of being in a relationship."

Molly was shocked.

John tried to stop Sherlock but he went on-

"Or are you trying to settle with Graham here. I' ll give you that. He is definitely more intelligent than many of the men you've seen till date, however Molly Hooper, you'd be settling with him as well. Because he is not me."

"That's it, Sherlock, come on sit down have a drink!"

"They are just not your type. I AM your type. I have always been. So whomsoever you chose to be with you'd always be settling because it would NEVER be me." Sherlock smirked.

Molly sighed.

"OKAY!" she began " Mrs. Hudson thank you so much for this wonderful party. John, Mary I'll see you on saturday. Greg, Merry Christmas! Do give my wishes to your boys. And Sherlock," she said turning to him.

Smack!

She slapped him. On his left cheek.

"Goodbye forever."

And then she left. Leaving a shell-shocked Sherlock behind with a pink hand printed on his cheek.

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Sooooo... Our dear Molly is not going to take any from Sherlock anymore! Did you like it!?


	4. Chapter 4

HEYLOOO! Finally, I pushed my lazy ass to write another chapter! A big thank you to all you lovelies for being this patient. Please let me know your awesome opinions on this chapter. xx

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He had done it again. He had hurt her, knowingly.

He found himself rooted at the same spot when he came out of his mind palace. The living room was empty.

He must have filtered out their goodbyes as they didn't matter to him.

He was about to grab his violin when he saw Molly's bag of presents. But what caught his attention was a perfectly wrapped present beside the bag.

It wasn't wrapped in red unlike the last time. It was a dazzling shade of purple. The note hadn't changed though. Three kisses. Romantic attachment. Sherlock was somehow relieved by that. He was about to open it when there was a knock on the door.

It was Molly.

Walking past him, she grabbed her bag and headed for the door.

"It would never be you Sherlock," she said, facing the door, with her back to Sherlock, who was still holding her present "but that someone whom I settle for, would willingly love me back, he would willingly _SETTLE_ with me, which will make him worth settling for." She smiled and turned, finally facing him.

"But of course, you would never understand that." She added sadly. "Merry Christmas Sherlock." She walked towards him and kissed him on his cheek and left with her bag.

His cheek burned at the spot where she had kissed him. Ignoring the weird sensations in the pit of his stomach, he proceeded to open the gift.

It was a blue cashmere scarf. He felt the soft material under his bare fingers. It was warm. Just the way she always was. Warm and welcoming. At the right end of the scarf, he discovered the initials SH. They were embroidered with great accuracy in a paler shinier shade of blue.

He unconsciously wore the scarf in his usual manner, and grabbed his violin.

He began playing "Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini". The sound of his music echoed on Baker St and the minimal sound of children singing carols from by the nearest church was soon drained out by the beautiful melody by Paganini.

Downstairs, Mrs. Hudson who was watching telly, heard his violin. She switched off the crap TV and sat by the window. Sipping the leftover champagne from the party, she silently tried to comprehend the melody because this time, it was just not the usual rough playing. It was calmer and satisfying as if the tune is trying to comprehend itself. With every note, on each pluck of the string, it was sending out questions to an unknown cosmic void. Something told her Sherlock was not going to stop any sooner.

And he didn't.

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I'm sorry if its too short. I'll try writing longer ones the next time onwards. Also, I totally recommend listening to "Rhapsody on theme of Paganini". It is an extremely beautiful melody which is sort of on the lines of romantic. And imagining Sherlock playing that tune was _HEAVEN_! *blushes* ^_^


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